POPS program , a model for all

From
Jonathon Turley piece POPS founder

THE
PROJECT FOR OLDER PRISONERS

In
1989, I established POPS to work on the problems associated with the
growing population of older offenders. POPS began with a single
prisoner, Quenton Brown, who was incarcerated at the Angola Prison in
Louisiana. On June 7, 1973, then 50 years old and homeless, Brown
walked into a bread store in Louisiana and, at gunpoint, stole $100
and a 15-cent pie. He then crawled under a nearby house where he
remained until the police arrived. After his arrest, Louisiana
determined that Mr. Brown had an I.Q. of 51—the intelligence of a
three-year-old child. After a one-day trial, Mr. Brown was given a
30-year sentence without chance of parole. He had served 16 years
when I first met him.

In
a matter of weeks, I was deluged by letters from close to one hundred
older and geriatric prisoners, who heard I was representing an older
prisoner for free. This number was striking in a state with such
extreme overcrowding that it had to rent out cells in local jails for
a significant percentage of its population. With the help of my
students, POPS was born. We set out to develop new approaches to this
population, including evaluative measures to isolate low-risk
prisoners and policies to reduce the costs of this population while
improving care for individual prisoners.

POPS
works on both national and local aspects of this problem, and POPS
continues to gather data on the special costs and necessities of this
population. Hundreds of law students have been trained in POPS and
are now practicing attorneys. All that is required is for a state to
request such a program, give POPS researchers access to the prison
population, and enlist the participation of one or more law schools.
POPS/DC will help any law school establish an academic program and
regional office for work in a given state. POPS largely performs
three functions in this area: individual case evaluations, state
reports and recommendations for reform, and legislative drafting.

POPS
students work without compensation and the project does not charge
for its services. When assigned a case, POPS students first interview
prisoners over the age of 55. Each prisoner is then evaluated
according to a long, comprehensive questionnaire that explores the
prisoner’s criminal history, chemical dependence history, health,
employment background, and family background. This information is
generally taken from interviews with the inmate, review of the prison
files, interviews with the correctional staff, and a search of all
courts and news files available on LEXIS/NEXIS and Westlaw. POPS
generally uses two different recidivism tests to gauge the risk of an
individual inmate. If the inmate appears low risk on both tests, the
student presents the case to the other POPS students.

If
the students vote to go forward, the student then attempts to contact
any victims or surviving family members as part of our victim
consultation stage. POPS was one of the first organizations to make
such interviews mandatory. Victim interviews can reveal
inconsistencies in an inmate’s account or simply show a level of
violence or aggression that does not appear in a written record. In
states allowing conditional paroles, victims are asked what
conditions would make them feel more comfortable with a release.

Assuming
the inmate’s case is still viable, the case worker then proceeds to
determine how a prisoner will live upon release. Specifically, the
student confirms any benefits, such as veteran’s benefits or social
security payments, which the inmate may be entitled to receive. If
the prisoner has a supportive family offering long-term housing, the
student confirms who owns the house, who lives in the house, and the
space available for the prisoner. The student further confirms
whether anyone in the house has a criminal record. Finally, if the
prisoner is able to work, the student works with any family or
friends to confirm employment upon release.

Once
all of these facts have been ascertained, the case is presented a
final time to the POPS members. If approved, the student then submits
the comprehensive findings and recommendations to the appropriate
parole or pardon board. The POPS model has been endorsed by leaders
from both parties and state commissions in states like California.

This blog is a companion to our Parole web page. Wisconsin has 2887 prisoners who are eligible for parole but are denied year after year. We are part of a campaign to see that these people get a second chance. They are all long past their parole dates. We want to spread the message loud and clear that people DO Change. Below are some of the stories and profiles of the many people stuck in a broken and wasteful system.